DFI LANParty UT ICFX3200 T2R/G

DFI is usually the physical embodiment of an overclockers wet dream. Literally every board it releases is hotly anticipated by the enthusiast community and the DFI LANParty UT ICFX3200 T2R/G is no exception. Note the “I” before the CFX3200, indicating that it is for Intel processors. ATI's RD600 chipset is in a unique position, where ATI was acquired by AMD in the third quarter of last year, but ATI still held a licence to produce chipsets for Intel CPUs. This effectively means irony has a new face because Intel CPUs can now be used in conjunction with an AMD chipset.

The RD600 chipset was believed to be a beast when it came to overclocking, sporting completely asynchronous memory and CPU buses. Naturally, DFI - being the enthusiast orientated company that it is - jumped at the chance of developing a motherboard based on it. DFI has had a mammoth job to get this board released, especially the BIOS, which we will come to later. But ATI chipsets have never been associated with enthusiast circles, only previously dominant in low power situations and OEM PCs, so does the RD600 change this?

DFI LANParty UT ICFX3200-T2R/G Overview:

• Support for Intel socket LGA775 processors, including Intel Core 2 Quad, Intel Core 2 Extreme, Intel Core 2 Duo, Intel Pentium D or Intel Pentium 4;
  
• ATI RD600 northbridge and SB600 southbridge;
  
• Four DDR2 800 DIMM slots with up to 8GB system memory;
  
• 'Karajan' HD Audio module, with Realtek ALC885 High-Definition Audio codec that supports 7.1 channel surround sound with S/PDIF and lossless content protection technology;
  
• Marvell 88E8052 and Marvell 88E8053 Gigabit PCIE LAN;
  
• Four SATA ports supporting RAID 0, 1, 0+1 from SB600 southbridge, and Four SATA ports supporting RAID 0, 1, 0+1 and 5 from Promise PDC40719;
  
• One IDE and one floppy connector;
  
• Two Firewire IEEE1394a ports (one from pin out, one rear I/O) from VIA VT6307;
  
• Ten USB 2.0 ports (six rear I/O and four from pin out);
  
• Three PCI-Express x16 slots for ATI CrossFire and ATI Physics (in either x16 and x1 or x8 and x8; the third slot is locked at x2 bandwidth);
  
• Three PCI slots.

Box Contents:

• One floppy cable
  
• One IDE cable
  
• Two SATA cables
  
• One molex to two SATA hard disk power adapter
  
• Metal I/O panel
  
• Karajan Audio module
  
• Driver CD and Floppy disk
  
• Manual, Quick Reference, LANParty Sticker and case badge

Overall the bundle is pretty meagre; out the box you can't even make a RAID 5 array on the Promise controller. With only the provision of two SATA cables you're left six short for the rest of the included ports. The supplied IDE and floppy cables are also yellow, which gives a nice colour coordinated feel to the bundle. That is, until you inevitably start using the random SATA cables to fill in, that you bought or borrowed from elsewhere.

There's also a nice thick multi-language manual and a useful quick reference, as well as a case badge and sticker if you're so inclined. I realise the UT version of the LANParty isn't meant to be a party in a bag (excuse the pun) that the non-UT version is, but DFI could at least throw in a few more essential items.